


A Bite of Temptation

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Detective Noir, F/F, Mind Manipulation, Sibling Incest, Treat, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-17 11:04:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4664181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You might call Sabine the one that got away. Both in the sense of what could have been, (for an admittedly rather generous interpretation of the word ‘could’), and in the sense that no matter how many times I’d come across the evidence that my darling little sister was up to no good, I could never quite bring myself to kill her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



She sauntered in just after sundown, pausing at the door barely long enough to knock.

“Hey there stranger.” She pushed back her hood to free immaculate blonde curls, seemingly untouched by the oppressive humidity. “Long time, no see.”

I was getting ready to close up, but if one thing could keep me in the office after hours, it was the woman standing in front of me. I sighed, and leaned back in my chair. “Sabine.”

“You could sound a bit more thrilled, Char,” she teased, slipping off her coat to reveal a tight black dress with a plunging neckline. Jewels glittered at her neck and from beneath her hair, her lips painted a breathtaking red. It was the sort of getup that wouldn’t look out of place at a fancy cocktail party, the kind I’d never be invited to. More likely than not, a vampire function.

In life, she’d preferred color, but I was given to believe her new choice in wardrobe served a more practical purpose than pretentions at an undead aesthetic. Black didn’t stain.

There was something unnerving about glancing up at the gorgeous creature in front of me, and knowing that she hated doing the laundry, or that her idea of a good time - second now to ripping out throats - was curling up with a book or lip-syncing along to the most canned, commercial pop she could find. But it wouldn’t do to dwell on that.

“What do you want?”

She lingered by the chair opposite my desk, running her fingers over the dark wood. “Must we get down to business so soon? I haven’t seen you in _ages_.”

When I only cocked an eyebrow, she sighed. “I need you to investigate a murder.”

You might call Sabine the one that got away. Both in the sense of what could have been (for an admittedly rather generous interpretation of the word ‘could’), and in the sense that no matter how many times I’d come across the evidence that my darling little sister was up to no good, I could never quite bring myself to kill her. So for her to turn up now, asking for my help, no less… I was understandably cautious.

“Not one of yours, I take it?” I asked dryly.

“One of the vampire princes was crucified this morning,” she told me, ignoring that remark in favor of finally cutting the bullshit, “right in front of the queen’s residency. Everyone’s in an uproar.”

I whistled. A dark, misty day like this? It would have taken ages for them to burn, the rest of their kind closed up nice and safe and unawares. Someone had wanted that leech to suffer. But, “you know I don’t get involved with the bloodsuckers’ politics, I just stake them. What makes this any different?”

Sabine leaned forward, deliberately placing one palm in the center of my desk. In the dim light, her nails looked like they’d been painted the color of blood. Tips pointed. It wasn’t a new affectation, but it was a far safer thing to focus on than the unearthly ivory of her bared skin, or the mouthwatering hint of cleavage peeking from the neckline of her dress.

Lesson number one, never let a vamp get within striking range. Too late already; her breath stirred the tendrils of hair that’d escaped from my haphazard bun. By all means, I should have been done for.

I sat deathly still as she reached out and ran one of those same fingernails down the length of my jugular. It was the type of gesture that might have otherwise had my brain buzzing with the thought of future intimacies - and I won’t say that it didn’t cross my mind - but knowing what she was, a not-altogether-pleasant tingle sparked at the base of my spine. Their predatory drive always came first.

Any other vamp could have made it feel like a threat. Sabine didn’t have to.

She knew she’d gotten to me. I could read it in the quirk of her lips when she straightened up, and I wondered if she could hear the way my heart pounded in response. If, to her senses, the scent of my unwitting arousal filled the office, circulating on the humid air currents.

As far as thoughts go, that one was a grave mistake. The idea of Sabine being privy to that most involuntary of reactions sent a flush spreading across my cheeks with nearly the same intensity as the too familiar heat pooling between my thighs. Her smirk widened. “I’m sure I can make it worth your while.”

“You’d better,” I grumbled, but grabbed my keyring and unlocked the drawer in my desk where I kept my files concerning the local vampire covens. Wanting to get involved in their politics or not, pertinent information could prove nearly as useful as a stake. Especially for someone who had as many dealings with them as I did.

“Your place, or mine?” Sabine teased, already fetching my coat from the stand near the door. Impatient, as always. I bit my lip to avoid ruining my already perilous grasp on nonchalance with a smile.

Still, she seemed to glide rather than walk, the sharp points of her stiletto heels barely touching the carpet. It’d be infuriating if the sight didn’t take my breath away, and there had to be something truly unholy about lusting after my undead little sister, but there I was - not that I’d ever admit to it. A flash of lace and silver at her thigh proved my distraction, the slit in her gown falling open to reveal an ornate dagger strapped to her leg.

Fucking vampires. 

I wanted to tell her we’d head back to my apartment. Home turf advantage. Then I remembered the collection of empty wine bottles making themselves at home on the kitchen counter, half a dozen piles of clothes strewn about the living room, and a certain picture from back when she’d still had a pulse - still gracing my nightstand, though I’d vowed to toss it at least twice. Also, it was pretty well vampire proofed.

“You don’t live in a crypt, do you?”

Sabine laughed and offered up an address on the wealthier side of the city: a section with a twelve block radius better known as the vampire quarter. Of course. I pulled the thick stack of files from my drawer with a sigh.

“Fine, but we’re stopping for takeout on the way. I know no one’s stupid enough to deliver there, and I’m starving.”

I busied myself with my coat more intently than necessary, before we could slip into familiar banter and I forgot all the reasons why I couldn’t trust her. The longer I let Sabine play at the sister I’d loved, the more likely I’d end up in a gutter, bled out and cut to ribbons.

Nothing personal. That was just the way vamps operated.

Next to her I felt underdressed, but my lighter and cigarettes were in the pockets I’d left them. I gestured for Sabine to carry my files, ignoring the roll of her eyes in favor of lighting up. “It’s not like you’re the one getting lung cancer,” I reminded her before she could comment on my choice of vices.

Sabine’s mouth twisted up into a not-unattractive pout. “Just being used as a pack mule.”

“And a damn pretty one.” I shuffled her towards the door and back out of my office, locked it behind us. “That vampire strength’s gotta be good for something, right? And don’t answer that.”


	2. Chapter 2

Whatever satisfaction I’d derived from insisting on Indian food (her place would smell like curry for weeks, at least to a vampire), vanished the moment Sabine opened the door to her apartment.

She turned to smirk at me, eyes too-bright and fangs standing out against the bright red of her lips. “You like it?”

I felt my heart leap in my chest, that damnedly persistent burn of arousal flare to an inferno - the inhuman delight written across Sabine’s face shouldn’t have been so alluring. It shouldn’t have had me biting my lip and focusing all of my energy into trying not to say something I’d regret. As it was, a bomb could have blown her ritzy penthouse to bits behind us and I’d have hardly noticed.

Probably not a great quality in a detective, in hindsight.

“Wow.”

I blinked, trying to get my wits about me. Sabine had to be toying with me, but that didn’t make it any easier to resist. I pushed past her into the apartment and refused to let my thoughts linger on our momentary proximity or the cool brush of her skin against mine. “How the hell did you swing this?”

The apartment, what I could see of it, was massive. Thick blackout curtains covered the windows in crimson brocade, but everything else glittered in gold and crystal. The vase on her end table alone was probably worth more than my yearly salary. It was the very definition of conspicuous consumption, and shockingly to her taste.

If I’d felt underdressed next to Sabine before, that was nothing. I stood there awkwardly clutching my takeout before I realized that I’d better put it down if I didn’t want to squeeze the container to bursting, and seriously started to wonder if I should have dressed up.

She took my distraction as an opportunity to brush past me again, nudging my shoulder as if there wasn’t enough room in this ridiculous apartment for her to have avoided the collision if she’d wanted to. A sudden claustrophobia descended on me; I thought of prey being led into a trap, half-formed warnings about vampires who could use glamors to make you love every minute even as they killed you... but all of that fled my mind the second Sabine dropped her coat onto the tile.

The back of her dress plunged nearly to her waist, revealing a tantalizing amount of skin. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, salivating like it was some perverse Pavlovian reaction. I’d certainly had worse moments, but chain smoking until I threw up had never made me hate myself so much, and that was probably saying something.

Sabine laughed and gave an airy wave of her hand as if to pull my attention back to the matter at hand, eyebrows arching delicately, “oh, you know,” she sing-songed, “fucked my way up to the top, and all that.” She looked back at me over her shoulder as she turned towards the hallway. Posed like a hollywood starlet, all curves and long legs and shimmering hair. “Unzip me?”

I’d have made a snappy retort - _you sure there’s anything to unzip?_ \- but the words evaporated off my tongue as soon as I opened my mouth.

There’d been a time when I’d reasoned to myself that this was a safe attraction. Something I’d never have to worry about becoming requited, something to keep me preoccupied until I had the time for a real love affair. Probably about the time I realised that my feelings were less than acceptable in most jurisdictions, but I could pine over Sabine from afar and know I’d never have to risk my heart being broken any further, because nothing would ever come of it.

But there was nothing safe about this.

I closed the distance between us yet again, knowing in every part of me that I shouldn’t, but unable to stop my feet from carrying me towards her. My breath was coming too fast, my heart racing and palms sweaty. As far as I was concerned, if she wanted me, she could have me - whether that meant draining me dry or throwing me down on the floor and fucking me until I couldn’t stand - and I had a pretty good idea which Sabine was after.

Every step I took felt like crushing inevitability. I was going to die. Here lies Charlotte Dubois, who got what was coming to her.

I was going to die, and every nerve in my body was on fire.

The look in Sabine’s eyes, the way she stood there so casually as if the world should revolve around her; it hit me like a punch to the gut. I would have fallen to my knees and begged her in an instant, and the thought turned me on like nothing else. That she could compel me, take away all of my choice in the matter and lead me like a lamb to the slaughter… the thought was as appealing as it was terrifying, and the fear only added to my arousal. My hands shook when I reached out.

I felt my fingers curl around her waist more than I consciously chose to place them there.

Sabine’s hair ghosted against my neck as she leant back, her body pressed against mine. Then she turned and looped her arms around my shoulders. “Gotcha,” she whispered, low enough to make me shudder.

Her fangs were out, and they shone viciously. There was no trace of the sister I had loved and lost, only the vampire holding me to her chest, head inclined as she moved in for the kill. I bared my throat.

Sabine’s lips brushed against my neck, her breath stirring my hair and sending sparks all the way to my toes. I was weak in the knees, throbbing with desire. _Take me_ , I would have said, if I could.

 _I’m yours. I always have been_.

She kissed me again, open-mouthed, and directly over my jugular. The points of her fangs pressed into my neck. They didn’t break skin, but I felt lightheaded already, my whole body pulled tight with yearning beneath hers. “Sense of self preservation like that,” Sabine mused, vibration of her words on my throat near enough to have me coming, “it’s amazing you’ve lasted this long.”

The weight I hadn’t even been aware of disappeared all at once, and instinct finally kicked in. I shoved Sabine back as hard as I could, fumbled the stake out of my jacket.

“Fuck you,” I said, with as much venom as I could muster. And then repeated it a few more times, careful to avoid eye contact this time.

What a fucking rookie mistake. I’d never come so close, never let my guards down so easily… She’d had me right there. One bite, and I would have been dead or worse, and my neck still tingled with the reminder of her mouth.

Her mouth - It hit me all at once and I was shaking, tears stinging my eyes. “God, fucking-”

Why hadn’t she done it?

“I need a cigarette,” I grumbled, glaring down at the marbled tile, but keeping Sabine firmly in my peripherals in case she tried anything. She’d kicked off her heels at some point, and she stood there barefoot for a long moment, but she didn’t make a move to retaliate.

Eventually, she turned her back on me again and unzipped her own damn dress. “Open a window,” she called out over her shoulder, and disappeared down the hall without a backward glance.


	3. Chapter 3

Fresh air helped a surprising amount. Combined with the nicotine and far too much to puzzle through, I was starting to feel like a human being again. The tremors were almost gone, even.

So long as I didn’t think about my sister, I would be fine. _(She knew, she knew my secret, knew that dark, awful part of me that only craved what I could never have, that I was sick for wanting in the first place…)_ Easier said than done, sure, but she’d also sprung a murder investigation on me only a few hours before, and the more I pondered that, the less it made sense. Why would Sabine care about the murder of some vampire, let alone enough to come to a known hunter about it? I stared out the open window into the night, and began to come to some conclusions of my own.

At least Sabine’s apartment had one hell of a view. The cityscape stretched out as far as I could see, long gashes of dark water about midway to the horizon, only broken by bridges shimmering with strings of light before the buildings took up again. Looking out over it all - eerily quiet from this area of the city; no vendors or pedestrians, and barely any traffic this far into the vampire quarter - it was almost what I’d consider peaceful. So of course it couldn’t last.

She was back all too soon, vampy evening wear traded out for a pale blue tee shirt that barely hit the tops of her thighs. As obscenely casual now as she’d been dolled up before; I was tempted to wonder if she wore anything else beneath it, and then thought better.

I thumbed my ash onto her windowsill and pointedly continued to avoid looking at Sabine. At this point, I wasn’t sure what had me more rattled: her glamor and my most recent and most terrifying brush with death yet, or her glamor and my reaction to it, the way her lips had felt on my neck, the way her body had felt against mine… I was going to be playing that over in my head until I died.

“Don’t expect me to apologize,” she started.

“Then save your breath.” I cut her off before she could finish whatever that thought would have been, “I don’t want to hear it. Why’d you call me in on this?”

“I got carried away,” Sabine said, refusing to answer my question. She drew closer.

“Stay away from me,” I warned her, brandishing my stake when it looked like Sabine might try to get friendly again. A change of subject was sorely in order - before she could continue trying to explain herself, or drag the conversation down avenues I’d rather avoid. “What I asked myself is, why would some vampire prince matter to you? And I couldn’t come up with a thing. You’re all self-serving, hedonistic parasites. But they were crucified in front of your queen’s residency, and something tells me you and the queen are tight. This apartment, maybe.

“And while I’m sure it’s great fun playing sugar baby to some old ass vampire queen, if she bites it, you’re fucked in a whole new way. So I’m here to clean up your mess as usual, and in the meantime you get to amuse yourself jerking me around.” _Taking advantage of my fucked up incestuous inclinations_ , I didn’t add - but it was a close thing. The implication was as clear as the one Sabine was presumably working off of - that as long as she strung me along, I’d do anything for her. Her pathetic, perverted lackey.

“Char,”

“I said save it. I’m off your case, Sabine.” She’d been gone maybe ten minutes, fifteen, tops, but I’d have said I thought long and hard about it anyway. If you counted the time since she’d stepped into my office, it wouldn’t even have been entirely untrue. “I have _some_ self respect, you know.” Maybe not enough to keep myself from wanting to be with her anyway, no matter what it took, but certainly - okay, barely - enough to know better. “Enough to tell you no. Joke’s on you this time.”

I didn’t know where I’d summoned up all that bitterness from. Years of frustration and hating myself for loving her and hating her in equal measure, probably. And I felt good about it for another half second too.

“Will you fucking look at me?”

“That depends. Are you going to lay another whammy on me and actually follow through this time?”

“Fuck you, Charlotte,” Sabine spat back, and this time even the threat of my stake didn’t keep her back. She cleared the room between us in the blink of an eye and I barely had time to get my hands up before she grabbed me. A second later, I was being thrown to the floor, far too fast to react.

My shoulder connected with the tile hard enough to have me seeing stars, pain shooting up and down my arm and all the way across my back. But I didn’t have the time to focus on that. I tightened my grip on the wooden stake in my hand and prepared to strike the next time she came at me, pretending I was down for the count.

“You’re right, I’ve changed.” She stopped just out of range, glaring down at me with fire in her eyes. “I take what I want now; I don’t give a fuck about right and wrong. But you, Char? You can go ahead and keep pretending you’re the better person all you want, but I know you want to fuck me; I’ve known for years. Were you ever going to anything about it, or is it enough to just feel sorry for yourself all the time?”

When she crashed down onto her knees beside me, I want to say I was too stunned to follow through, but I wasn’t. I needed to know what she’d do - and Sabine didn’t disappoint.

She grabbed me by the hair and I had just enough time to wonder if I’d miscalculated before her lips crashed into mine.

I was stunned for another half second, and then I was throwing myself into the rough kiss. Far too eager, all thought of why I shouldn’t utterly abandoned. She could kill me. She could pull me back under, take over my mind and possess me body and soul. I wouldn’t have cared. In fact -

“Do it.” I pulled back to look at her, trying to memorize the swirl of gold and green in my sister’s eyes. It’d been so long since I’d seen that, let alone gotten to appreciate it.

Sabine scowled. “So you can blame me later? I don’t think so.” She yanked on my hair until I was forced to let my head fall back. “Pussy up and fuck me, Char,” she growled against my neck, fangs once again perilously close to the vein. A shudder ran through my whole body, and I arched up into her touch; self preservation could go fuck itself. “Or get the fuck out.”

It felt like free falling. This was the point of no return - if I did this - 

Fuck it. I'd waited far too long, wanted this far too much. Couldn't stop myself from smirking up at Sabine any longer...

_"Charlotte Dubois, paranormal investigator, at your service."_


End file.
